Combined phone cabinet and writing desk



July 6, 1965 M. w. PRESTON COMBINED PHONE CABINET AND WRITING DESK Filed May 1964 aoFlG.

MERRILL W PRESTON ATTORNEY United States Patent 3,193,341 COMBINED PHQNE CABINET AND WRITING DESK Merrill W. Preston, Emmaus, Pa., assignor to Caloric Corporation Filed May 21, 1964, Ser. No. 369,182 4 Claims. (Cl. 312-245) In modern homes, it is now customary toinstall a telephone to permit communication without leaving the kitchen and because of the limited space available in an applicance-crowded kitchen, it is more and more the practice to resort to wall mounted telephones.

As is well known, a person rushes to answer the phone only to find that a long message is to be recorded, and such person must ask the caller to wait until paper and pencil can be found.

One object of this invention is .to provide a stationary storage cabinet which can be mounted adjacent a wall mounted phone and which, when mounted, presents the appearance of a unified structure as if the phone and cabinet were somehow integrated. This makes for convenience in that therstationary and the phone are close together and it presents a very attractive appearance as compared with a phone projecting abruptly from a wall. On the contrary, the arrangement herein disclosed, the length and width of the cabinet, being appreciably larger than its depth and about equal to the depth :of the phone, combine to present a shallow appearance or built-in appearance which minimizes the objectionable appearance of this comparatively narrow phone instrument projecting, alone, from .an otherwise uninterrupted wall expanse,

A still further object is to produce a cabinet of the type referred to which, when opened, provides a horizontal writing surface.

A further object of this invention is to produce a cabinet of the type set forth which can be installed before or after the phone instrument has been installed.

A still further object is to produce a cabinet which can be mounted on either side of a wall telephone.

A still further object of this invention is to produce a cabinet which is inexpensive and which is easily mounted.

The full nature of the invention will become apparent from the following specification and the accompanying drawings in which:

FIG. 1 is a front elevational view of a cabinet embodying present invention with the door closed.

FIG. 2 is a similar view with the front door open.

FIG. 3 .an enlarged sectional view of the cabinet of FIG. 2 taken along lines 33.

FIG. 4 is an enlarged sectional view looking in the direction of lines 4-4 on FIG. 2.

FIG. 5 is a bottom plan view of the cabinet of FIG. 1.

FIG. 6 is an enlarged cross sectional view taken along lines 66 in FIG. 3.

In FIG. 1 there is shown a cabinet 10 embodying the invention and associated with a standard wall mounted telephone 12 having a supporting base 14 and a transmitting and receiving set 16 resting in a cradle 18. The usual phone is rectangular and has a front wall 29, top and bottom walls 22 and 24, and side walls 26 and 28. According to my invention, I use a frame 11 formed of a top wall 30, left side wall 32, right side wall 34, and bottom wall 36, and a unitary cabinet 37, which is movably enclosed within the frame. Cabinet unit 37 has a top wall 39, a bottom wall 41, a left side wall 43, and a right side wall 45. As can be seen from FIG. 1, the height of the phone and of unit 3-7 is such that the phone and the unit fit snugly between top walls 30 and 36 of the frame. It can also be seen that the combined width of the phone and cabinet unit 37 is equal to the width of the frame so as to fit snugly between walls 3-2 and 34. The top and bottom walls 39 and 41 of cabinet unit 37 are slidable on guide tracks 47 and 49 which extend the entire length of frame top and bottom walls 30 and 36. See FIG. 4. Cabinet unit 37 is preferably made of sheet metal having the necessary rigidity.

Slidable cabinet 37 has a door 38 which is secured to the front edge of bottom wall 41 by hinges 40, which maintains the door 38 in its open, horizontal position, as shown in FIGS. 2 and 3. The door may be opened by merely pulling on handle 44. With the cabinet unit 37 therein, the frame 11 and cabinet unit 37 define an opening which is equal to the size of the front wall 20 of the telephone 12.

Top wall 39 of cabinet unit 37 has spaced punched out portions 51 which are adapted to be secured to the top frame wall 30 by screws 53 and bottom wall 41 is also provided with punched out portions 55 and 57 which are secured to bottom frame wall 36 by screws 59. FIG. 5. Screws 53 and 59 help locate the cabinet and to prevent response to vibration.

Frame bottom wall 36 is provided with two out out portions 6% and 6 1 for receiving the phone wire whether the phone .is to the right, or to the left of the cabinet.

Side walls 43 and 45 of the cabinet unit 37 each have struck out portions 63 which bear against the right side wall 34 of the frame 11 and the right side wall 28 of the telephone ,12 to prevent lateral rattling of the cabinet unit 37. Cabinet unit 37 is secured to a wall, or other support 65 by screws 67 which pass through holes provided in the back wall 46 of the cabinet. On this inside surface 56 of door 33 I provide one or more elongated loops 58 for receiving and holding the backing of a pad of paper (not shown), whereby one using the telephone will have paper and pencil readily available. Door 38 is held in its closed position by a magnet 62 which may be secured to the top wall 39, or to the top edge of the door. The back wall 46 has formed therefrom upper and lower oppositely facing channels 64 and 66 for receiving .a book '69 of phone numbers or the like. Also, stamped from back wall 46 of cabinet unit 37, are holders 70, 72 and 74- which are adapted to support cards, pencils, envelopes or the like. It will be noted that, when in its open, horizontal position, door 38 serves as a desk or writing surface. The inner bottom edge of the door is bent to form a longitudinal trough 14 which faces up when the door is closed so as to receive and retain a pen or pencil, not shown.

The operation is as follows:

In the absence of a phone, cabinet unit 37 is fastened to the wall and frame 11 is secured thereto, as at 53. When a phone is to be installed it is inserted into the opening defined by the corresponding portions of upper and lower walls 30 and 36, of frame 11; and by the right or left side of unit 37 and the right or left wall 34 or 32 of the frame depending on whether the cabinet unit is in the right or left end of the frame. If necessary, frame '11 can be removed to permit the phone installer to work, and it is replaced after the phone is installed.

i prising:

, Ifa wall-phone is already installed, it is merely necessary to mount unit 37 at one side of the phone or the other and to apply and secure the frame, at 53, to unit 37. In either case, the frame encloses both the phone and the cabinet unit and gives them an integrated appearance.

It can thus be seen that the cabinet, including channels 64, and 66, and card holders 66, 70, 72 and 74 can be 7 inexpensively made; that it is easily installed; that it can be installed on either side of the phone and that it can be installed before, or after the phone has been installed.

I claim as my invention:

1.1 A combined storage'cabinet and writing desk com- ,a back attachable to a vertical support, a horizontal top, 'a horizontal bottom and spaced vertical'sides ,said' top, bottom and said sides ccact-ing with said backto provide an enclosurehaving a front opening,

a door, for closing said opening,

meaus'hingingthe door alongits lower edge to said bottom whereby said door is movable to a vertical position, to close 'said opening and to substantially horizontal position to provide a writing surface, and

means carried by said back for receiving and storing writing materials,

the lower, inner edge of said door being bent to provide a trough which faces upwardly when the door is closed. r

72/111 combination, I

-a cabinet having a top wall, a bottom wall and side walls co'nnecting'the ends of said top and bottom walls, a

' said top, bottom and @side' walls co-acting to define an i enclosure having afront opening,

a door hinged at its bottom edge to said bottom Wall and movable to a vertical position to close said opena ing and tea horizontal position to provide a writing surface, and 7 M! an outer frameenclosing the top,othe bottom, and an included vertical side of said cabinet,

said frame being extended beyond the other vertical side wall ofsaid" cabinet to enclose the top, the

bottom and an included side wall 'o f an object placed adjacent said otherside Wall'of said cabinet;

3. The cabinet defined in claim 2 in which the frame is extended in a horizontal direction and means detach ably securing said frame to said cabinet. 7

4. A combined storage cabinet and writing desk comprising: v a

a back wall attachable to a vertical support, a horizontal top wall, a a horizontal bottom wall, spaced vertical side walls, a said top, bottom, and side walls co-acting with said back wall to provide an enclosure having a front opening, 7 a a door for closing said opening, 7 means hinging said door along'its bottom edge to said bottom wall whereby said door is movable to a substantially vertical position to close said opening and tora substantially.horizontal position to provide a writing surface, a at least one wall fixedlyca-rr-ied by, and oo-acting with, said' back wall to provide a first upwardly opening trough disposed near one of said side walls,- and another wall'fixedly carried by and-co ac-ting with said back wall to form a second upwardly opening trough disposed near the other of said side walls.

References Cited by the Examiner UNITED STATES PATENTS 391,013 10/88 Bogardus 312227 X 1,198,227 9/16 Hinchey 292-2515 1,471,757 10/23 Thiriot 3l2233 X 1,700,121 1/29 De Boer 312242X 1,805,847 5/6-1 Reetz 312-315X 2,248,916 7/41 Opper 312-351" 2,299,409 10/42 Ra-thburn 312-315 X 2,489,708 11/49 Hammer 312242 X 2,558,536 6/51 Brude'r 31'2'242 X 2,908,416 10/59 Rudolph 312'242 X 2,911,275 11/59 Wise Q 31 2-242 3,157,287 11/ 64 Sinclair s 2 1149 FOREIGN PATENTS r 351,843 7/31 Great Britain.

507,285 6/39 Great Britain.

FRANK B. SHERRY, Primary Examiner, 

1. A COMBINED STORAGE CABINET AND WRITING DESK COMPRISING: A BACK ATTACHABLE TO A VERTICAL SUPPORT, A HORIZONTAL TOP, A HORIZONTAL BOTTOM AND SPACED VERTICAL SIDES, SAID TOP, BOTTOM AND SAID SIDES COACTING WITH SAID BACK TO PROVIDE AN ENCLOSURE HAVING A FRONT OPENING, A DOOR FOR CLOSING SAID OPENING, MEANS HINGING THE DOOR ALONG ITS LOWER EDGE TO SAID BOTTOM WHEREBY SAID DOOR IS MOVABLE TO A VERTICAL POSITION TO CLOSE SAID OPENING AND TO SUBTANTIALLY HORIZONTAL POSITION TO PROVIDE A WRITING SURFACE, AND MEANS CARRIED BY SAID BACK FOR RECEIVING AND STORING WRITING MATERIALS, THE LOWER, INNER EDGE OF SAID DOOR BEING BENT TO PROVIDE A TROUGH WHICH FACES UPWARDLY WHEN THE DOOR IS CLOSED. 